Lending slowdown at Wells Fargo; shares down 1.7% premarket

JPMorgan and Citigroup earlier flew by Q1 estimates even as traditional banking results noticeably weakened. Pushing the two to beats was strength in investment banking and trading. Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) can't rely on that as much as its TBTF peers, and suffered a Y/Y decline in revenue and income only flat from a year earlier. Shares are now down 1.7% premarket vs. small gains for JPM and C.

The efficiency ratio deteriorated to 62.7% from 61.2% in Q4 and 58.7% a year ago.

Period-end loan balances of $958.4B down $9.2B from three months earlier, with a slowdown in new credit card openings among the factors. Also noted is a slowdown in auto lending as the bank tightened underwriting. Residential mortgage loan originations of $44B down from $72B in Q4.